It took six whole weeks for the news to be splashed on the front page of this august newspaper: Concerns on Heritage Status of Valletta. Unesco's World Heritage Committee discussed complaints about the impact on Valletta of high-rise buildings, which we have long ago all got resigned to looking at in Tigne. Because of this and because of the trend to place penthouses on top of 16th, 17th and 18th century buildings, the committee has demanded reports from the government, by February next year, on the progress made to establish a buffer zone around and to control building heights within Valletta.
I find it very peculiar indeed that Unesco, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to point fingers at elements outside the city of Valletta as such and ignore the pitiful state of the capital within. Two streets have been paved since 1980, when Valletta was declared a World Heritage Site, and at last the Palace Square is undergoing a much needed facelift.
Be that as it may, the rest of the capital remains unpaved and unspruced; a hazardous enterprise for all those who, while walking around the capital's streets, risk life and limb if not careful to avoid and circumnavigate the potholes, crevasses and fissures that abound in its gridiron thoroughfares.
The crumbling façades of abandoned maisons particuliers and the unpainted woodwork of most houses do not appear to have bothered the Unesco bigshots overmuch. The special committee met in Seville last month and proceeded to deprive Dresden of its World Heritage status because of some bridge that the city wishes to construct. Now tell me. The high-rises across Marsamxett Harbour have been there for ages, therefore why is it only now that Unesco decided to make noises about it? And, curiouser and curiouser, the Valletta penthouse syndrome has been in vogue for at least a decade so why is Unesco rattling its sabres now?
What about Mepa in all this? Should not the authority have had the proper Unesco guidelines as to what conditions are essential to the retention of the world heritage status? Either Unesco or Mepa have goofed and we may never know which it was. In 2007 photographic evidence was submitted to Unesco and the reply was that "no buffer zone" was submitted.
I would imagine that logic dictates that Marsamxett Harbour itself is a natural buffer zone and that is possibly why one was not submitted. Two years later the government was informed that the photographic evidence is insufficiently clear.
Either Unesco is very slow and inefficient or it does not consider our capital city important enough to nip adverse projects in the bud as it did in the case of Dresden. What can possibly be done at this stage? Demolish all of Tigne? How absurd!
Unesco has also requested the government to submit detailed information about the entire Renzo Piano Project as it wishes to ascertain that it is in synch with Unesco's guidelines! The report also mentions two projects that have long bitten the dust: the underground museum to house the Perellos tapestries and the subterranean car park on the Palace Square!
What is this Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation under the United Nations umbrella all about? Well, for starters, it meets once a year and its annual budget for '"identifying, preserving and promoting" the 890 world heritage sites is $4 million; a mere bagatelle coming to think of it.
Notwithstanding this, having one's entire capital city designated as a world heritage site is one way of safeguarding it and making people around the world aware of its uniqueness.
Along with Valletta, Unesco also designated the Hypogeum and all our megalithic temples as world heritage sites. That, for little Malta, is quite an achievement.
Therefore how is the government going to explain to Unesco that the high-rise buildings across the water are a fait accompli? Will people have to demolish their Valletta penthouses that command such breathtaking views of the Grand Harbour from the inner streets like St Paul's and St Ursula's? Should Mepa not have regulated all this before it happened? Common sense states that it should have; but did it? Have the Unesco people been given the precise and unadulterated plans and the photographs of what is happening at Ħagar Qim? I hope so.
So where do we go from here? Can a compromise of sorts be reached? Here is yet another complicated Gordian Knot for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to unravel. Will he sever it as Alexander did? That could risk Unesco dropping us for good and then, when in 2018 Malta is designated as Europe's Cultural Capital, what on earth do we tell the EU? Would we be able to declare, barefaced, that our capital city lost its world heritage status because the incompetence of our omnipotent planning authority to adhere to and interpret Unesco guidelines? As Victor Meldrew says, I don't believe it!
kzt@onvol.net